The Twilight Zone: "Mr. Bevis Redux…"
Summary: The TZ episode featuring the rather eccentric but lovable Mr. Bevis gets a bit of tweaking…But it's still Orson Bean (worth looking up his work on YT) in the character role.
Disclaimer: He may be dead but only Rod Sterling owns "Twilight Zone" and no copyright infringement intended.
"Mr. Bevis Redux…"
Part VI…
"Hey, guys!" Bevis calls to the neighborhood children in the street, they cautiously eyeing him. He waves at them but they remain in place, glancing at each other…
"Don't they know me? I play with them every day…" he turns to a rather worriedly sheepish Aurora.
"I see…" he sighs. "Not in this existence."
"You're a busy person, maybe once you've settled in you can win them over." She suggests. "Though, after all, James, it is a little odd in any existence for a grown man to play with children."
"I just throw a ball around and say hi, how are you. No one's ever…Well…" he eyes her look. "Maybe a few people look at me like I'm a little cracked but…"
"It shouldn't be that way, I'm sorry, James." Aurora, carefully. "But you'll find some way to help them."
"You mean an adult, sensible way...From a safe distance? Not getting to know them, care about them. Writing checks, maybe?" hard stare… "Is that what you mean?"
She wilts a bit at his look...He closing his eyes, sighing...
The ball the kids were playing with, tossed ineptly by one of the smallest ones, struck the car's side.
The kids eyeing each other, the small boy looking rather terrified…As Bevis emerges from the car.
"It's ok, it's fine. No harm done." Bevis calls, with smile. The little boy nervously looking to the others but finally smiling back to Bevis. Mr. Bevis tosses the ball to him.
"Thank you, sir. Sorry." The boy calls.
"It's Jim. Again no problem, but try shooting a little more underhand to start till you get your aim going. Maybe tonight we can practice that, huh?"
"Yeah…" the boy smiles. "Thanks, Jim."
The others eyeing each other, calling the boy, Timmy, back.
"See…Not so bad…" Aurora notes, carefully, anxiously. "They're just not used to you being so friendly. You can find a way back into their lives, here."
"I guess it's not…" shrug. "I hate to think I was standoffish to them before."
"You might have to be a little…People could accept your old self playing around with kids, they knew you pretty…The new you, a busy bachelor, they don't know so well? They might find just a bit too strange." She cautions. "Just saying, a little restraint…Till you get to know them and they get to know you again."
"But I did know them…And they did know me…" shake of head. "Don't I have any friends here? I always hated seeing people walk right past each other, no one acknowledging the other's existence. Now I'm one of those people?"
"I'm sure you can adjust things…James, it's just a matter of balance." She pleads. He stares at her sad face a long moment.
"Ok, ok…I'll try…" he shrugs. She offering grateful pat…
…
The new car did start rather more smoothly, though without that wonderful old clank and vibration…Though without the old clutch and stick, Mr. Bevis was somewhat at a loss for a moment as to how to shift gears.
"I believe it's an automatic transmission, James. A very nice invention from what I've seen." Mrs. Hempstead notes, pointing to the shifting level. "But to shift…Whoa!" as the car lurched forward suddenly.
"Sorry…I just realized it was an automatic…You ok?"
"Not a problem." She shakes head, adjusting her cunning little Parisian hat. "What do you think?" eagerly. "You drive it very well."
"Well…I guess it's very sporty…" he tries, diplomatically.
"The Rickenbacker was very nice in its way but really isn't suited to this existence, James." She urges, gently. "Please, just give this a chance?"
"Of course…It is very kind of you to go to all this trouble for me, Aury. More than kind..." thoughtful tone.
"Thanks…" beam, flash of sparkling teeth. "Though really it's nothing. We'd best get you to your office now. You don't want to be late."
…
"Bevis." Nod from a well-dressed executive in the building housing Mr. Bevis' lately former but once again current employer, the Peckingpaugh Corporation.
"Hi, Stuart." He nods, rather eagerly…Surprising the man who shakes head after Bevis passes.
"So I'm friends with Stuart Parkman?" he hisses to Aurora as they waited by an elevator, she having confirmed her continued invisibility to all but he. "The man always seemed to find me ridiculous. Not that it ever bothered me."
"Not exactly 'friends'…Acquaintances…Mr. Parkman's a rising man at his firm and you're another. You talk occasionally about business, that sort of thing." Aurora notes.
"Sounds incredibly boring…" Mr. Bevis stares back at Parkman now entering his office complex. "But then, to be fair, I always did find him a little dull and frankly, a little petty. Much too obsessed with work and getting ahead."
"Well, people like that can be useful to know…" Aurora tries.
"I guess. But I like to meet all kinds of people."
"That's a understatement…" fond smile as he regards her. A questioning look...Which she tries to avoid...
…
He enters the main office of Peckingpaugh Corporation…No one looking up as the various workers, just arrived, were setting up for the day.
Well, for once, two minutes early…He eyed the clock over the door…
"Hey, fellas…!" cheery call as he made his way to his…Yikes! Desk.
No one offering more than a surprised grunt…
The desk was bare but for the essential tools of a purposeful and ambitious accountant…
Neatly arranged ledger book, calculator…Pens…Calendar carefully set to today's date.
"But where's Ada's engine?" he looks at Aurora. "I spent five months building that…"
"James…You never built it in this existence. You haven't time for such things."
"What?"
"Mr. Bevis, Mr. Peckingpaugh wants to see you immediately." A rather coolly efficient Elinor spoke up from behind them. Bevis turned to face her, she regarding him with none of the compassion or concern of the previous encounter.
"Oh…Is it bad? The sack?" he asks.
"I would hardly know, Mr. Bevis. But I doubt it given how he praises your work." Cool tone. The …and how you suck up…merely coolly implied.
Bevis, a bit nonplused by her tone…And by Aurora's sudden flash of anger…
Don't…His look pleads. Please…?
Fine…Hers, calming…
"Bevis!" Peckingpaugh's booming voice from up at the front of the office… "Come up here, my boy!" cheery wave.
"Mr. Peckingpaugh…" Bevis hurries up to the old man.
Aurora, instinctively glaring at the splitting image of the man who'd taken her and her family into bondage…But repressing her urge to revenge.
Not worth condemning myself for, especially just now…
And he…His ancestor… Didn't kill my mother…Nor would Father have behaved any kinder toward Captain Peckingpaugh's friend the Chief of the Ngere South than the Chief had.
"Everyone, a moment…Everyone, please…Attention…" Peckingpaugh, startling Bevis by putting an arm around his shoulder. "I want to recognize my finest employee, James Bevis, our hardest worker…" beam. "An example to us all, a man totally focused on his work."
The faint applause made echoed by various rolls of eyes and smirks among the staff…
"I want you all to know that in appreciation of his efforts, I'm giving Mr. Bevis, at his fourteenth month with us, a ten dollar a week raise! Learn from this man, people! He's a boy who's going places! Bevis, congratulations!" shaking a nervous hand.
Uhhh…"Thanks very much, Mr. Peckingpaugh. I guess I should get back to work."
"Now that's what I like to hear…Carry on, Mr. Bevis." Peckingpaugh nods, beaming again, and turns for his office door, this time not crashing into it.
"Thanks…" hiss to Aurora…
"My superiors understand my feelings, but once was pushing it…" she shrugs.
He takes his seat and looks round…
No one offering a greeting or even a wan smile…
Great…
I'm the despised office suck-up…
Well, time to show them I'm not quite Peterson Peckingpaugh's whipped poodle…He rises.
Aurora eyeing him nervously…
James…?
"I need some air. I'll be back." He tells Elinor who shrugs at him.
"Don't let me stop ya." Offhand shrug.
…
Out of the office, Aurora anxiously following him as Bevis hurriedly makes for elevator…
"James, where are you going?"
"I've got to get out, Aury…Get some air…I'm choking in this suit…" he sighs.
"James, please don't run from me…" she begs as he enters elevator, doors closing.
She appearing beside him immediately in the elevator to his sigh…
"Aurora…Mrs. Hempstead…I don't want to be rude…"
"Oh, James, I'm sorry…But please…I'm not trying to hurt you."
"I know it's not your fault." he nods. "I was worried for a moment but I believe you're not evil or trying to trick me, lie to me. I believe you wanted to help me. But…" he pauses as the doors open and he hurries across the building's foyer to the main entrance, exiting and hurrying down the stairs, she keeping right up with him till he halts on the sidewalk, facing her.
"…everything you've tried to do…" he eyes her stricken face.
"I know…I know…I just hoped so…" she sighs, tears running now.
"Oh, don't cry, Aury…Please." He patted her. Various passersby staring at the man in business suit patting empty air.
"You meant well, but…This isn't me…Not the way I am, inside. I can't be this sort of success, I'm sorry to disappoint you. I guess I'm just a failure…Not a hero like my ancestors…Just a plain eccentric failure. I get you wanted me to take hold and be like them. But…I don't think I can live any other way…"
"James…" she stares.
"I'm truly sorry…Truly. Aurora, I appreciate all you did to build me up a little but…"
"Oh…James…" she sobs, suddenly. Tears glistening on her lovely face...
"Sorry…" she puts up a hand at his distraught face, wan smile. "You'd think a royal princess would bear up a little better, especially a one turned guardian angel. My father, murderous brutal bastard that he was, would be so disappointed."
"Good." Bevis nods to her teary smile. "I'm glad you're nothing like him."
"Not entirely…" sigh. "Though even as an angel I haven't forgotten his ruthlessness. I've some in me, I'm afraid."
"I surely haven't seen it…" he smiles. "Aurora, you're as beautiful as your name and that's true of your soul or spirit as what you're showing me."
"You haven't been aware of it…James." Sad sigh. "But in my way, within the constraints of my position as a guardian, your guardian…I have been ruthless, with you. Though I was worse in life."
"You?"
"I told you I played up a bit to poor John Hempstead to get him to free me. I did try to be a good wife but I made his life rather hard…I was a princess, after all, and I expected him to acknowledge it, in some ways. Not easy for a laboring free black man who'd never known women or tenderness or even ample food on the table or an army of servants to serve it…And then I put him and our children in danger."
"Really? How?"
"John was at risk, being a man who'd fought for the Brits, as I told you. He saw no future in fleeing with them when they abandoned the Colonies but lived in fear that one day something might trip him up and expose him to the Americans. One day I nearly became that something. I'd won some fame by publishing a few poems about my memories of my family and our life then, what fragments I could dredge up, and my new life here…Well, in New Haven."
"Oh, like that Phyllis Wheatley…"
"Overrated…" Aurora frowns. "Sorry, I've had some tussles with Phyl before and after death, she's tried to dismiss my work as derivative from the Roman poets…Said I copied out of Ovid…And even that I faked some of my memories."
"She did…?"
"I was only twelve when I was first published…My master, that schoolmaster I mentioned, taught me to read and write, then when I showed what I could do, gave me out as a prodigy, which I was, rather." Coy smile. "I might have borrowed a little but no more than any other…Including Ms. Wheatley. Shakespeare took a lot from Marlowe, you know."
"He did, yes…Wow. Can I read some of your work? Sometime."
"Of course…I've gotten better with age and experience though, if I say so myself." Smile.
"Anyway, I had a bit of fame and John was fearful his past might come up, so he ordered me to stop writing and especially to stop sending poems to be published. He burnt up a pile of them one night and I nearly killed him in bed that night, with the fireplace spit. But I relented, which is one reason I'm here now…" smile.
"You've a kind heart, Aury."
"Well, I wish it were so, James. You see I found a way to truly put fear into his heart whilst doing good of a sort…And I needed him alive to shield me as a simple free black wife and mother…Keep the authorities off-guard." pause.
"And a certain young fellow, son of a Quaker who'd been killed helping some to freedom told me it would be poor payment to John and to God for my freedom." She eyes him.
Bevis stares…
"The second Mr. Bevis I encountered, last in my mortal life…" she grins. "He wasn't in the portrait list I showed you, he was son to that Quaker I did, but no one ever did his portrait. And as courageous, like a true Bevis. Worst of all, to the serenity of a young unhappy wife's mind…He was the image of the man who'd saved me, Chief Officer Bevis, my first and truest love." Fond smile, then raises hand. "We did nothing truly wrong…He was married as was I…And the times spoke strongly against us ever being together. But I loved him and I would have done anything for him…At the risk of my life, my husband's, my children…As I did." She looks down at her rather nice shoes from a New York City emporium…
"William Mathias Bevis followed in his father's footsteps, but in more organized fashion, with my help. We ran slaves up the Underground to Canada, he going South to lead them out, anyway possible, and I, with other brave friends, running various stations on the way North. Naturally, when John learned of it, as he eventually did, he was furious in his rage, sure I would take him and his surviving son to Perdition with me. Naturally, he blamed William, just as my father blamed Chief Officer , for stealing me from him. But no one ever stole me or my heart…I gave it, freely, of my own choosing." Stern look.
"He betrayed Will and me, but as part of the price to the slavecatchers, I was left free, just a silly black dupe of a radical Quaker abolitionist, not worth the bother, and Will was murdered, like his father." Aurora sighs. "I wanted to die and I did, with some help from John who could not forgive my betrayal. He'd saved me to save himself…And his son, to be fair to him, as I try to always be. But he could not forgive and one night, drunk, he shot me, four months into a pregnancy he'd raped me into."
"Aurora…"
"Just in case you'd still wondered why I should spend time on you and yours, though I maintain as before that it's no burden nor has stopped me from delighting in the changing world." Smile.
"But that's not the story of my truest ruthlessness, James…That lies with you." She eyes him. "James, I've not been trying to make you a success, 'build you up'. I've been knocking you down, my darling. Oh, I'm so ashamed, James…But I couldn't let this happen again. I wanted you to fail, not succeed."
He blinks…What?
"This…Minor success…A little advancement, a few nice things, a secure middling bit of a life…That was only my last hope, that today, after what'd happened you might view it with relief as a step up…Not the quiet, ordinary life it would have been…" sigh. "It was my last chance...And I see now I've failed. And there's worse..." she pauses.
"I did a terrible...Well, not to me, frankly, but to my superiors, thing, James. I altered your existence. Your previous existence..."
"You mean...All this? Or…?" long stare. "My old life...It wasn't what I remember, you're saying? Originally? You mean you changed it? Without my knowing?"
"You weren't quite as ineffectual in your original life, James." sigh. "You're still a genius at math but I deflected you from your true path. You were meant to be a rather brilliant if quite eccentric professor of mathematics. But unfortunately, from your point of view, you were asked to enter college administration, and after much badgering you accepted it was your duty as you always do and you became a dean...The youngest dean at Harvard." wan smile.
"Harvard? Me?" he stares. "And you prevented that...Aurora? Why?"
"To save you, James...Just once, I wanted to save you." she sighs. "You see it didn't end there...A certain Southern governor decided to try and find a northerner, a liberal of sorts...But a man he thought he could control...A weak man...To be president of his state university. He knew Black people would soon be trying to enter that university, backed with federal support. And he believed a northern liberal president of the state university who would provide various 'sound' reasons why it was a bad idea and not wise, etc, etc, would be an excellent cover for his racist views, allow him a way to stop the integration without exposing himself."
"Me?" Bevis eyes her.
"He'd met several northern deans, he thought he'd sized you up as the most easily intimidated, the fool." scornful tone. "As if a Bevis could ever be cowed by a pig like that."
"Aurora?" he smiles at her, shaking head.
"I'm an angel, not a saint, James...I'd've thought that was obvious." her wan smile back.
"So I became president of a southern state university and some black students applied…?"
"And you defied the governor and the usual howling mobs of bigots and supported them...Called in federal help." Aurora nods.
"Didn't end well?"
"The governor made calls to certain 'friends' in a certain 'organization'..." she notes. "You were assassinated."
"What?"
"Shot through the head, dead...The governor claimed it was the understandable, if unpardonable rage of a wronged people… And another Bevis met death, heroically. I had to try and stop it."
"But...If that was supposed to be my fate...Aurora?"
"James...I couldn't bear to see it happen again to you." she sighs. "Just once I wanted to see you live to lead a normal, quiet life. I thought if I kept you from ever been recognized, left you happy with the simple things you loved and just made sure you didn't run into too much hardship, in that simple life, you'd be safe, for one lifetime...And content. And I failed...I should've known it had to fail. So I tried to drag you into this mundane existence, hoped you'd believe it was better."
"Really? My life...The one I remember...Seems pretty quiet if perhaps not normal."
"You're a Bevis, James...The soul of the same man who saved me and countless others, time and time again. Oh, I know I did a dreadful thing and could have altered history a little but James...I love you so. I couldn't see you die like that, again. Not again..." sigh. "But, damn it...Sorry...You're a Bevis and you can't escape your destiny to save others and usually die trying. Though there's a even worse thing..."
"Well, Aurora..." he shakes head. "That's...Beautiful. But you got in trouble, over me...Saving me? That's not right..."
"Not really trouble James...It's just very selfish to do what I did and unprofessional. So I'm out, as a guardian, after this. Not reliable, though they do understand my feelings...Not that it matters now..."
"Oh, they can't..." agitated wave of hands. "Let me speak to someone...They can't do this to do you."
"It's not really a punishment, James. In fact, in a way...It's a reward." wan smile. "But it comes at a cost, potentially...Unless I was able to change things sufficiently to save the last of the Bevises."
"Why, that's right..." he nods. "I am the last of us since Mom's gone. Is that why…?"
"Yes...You never married or had any children any other way, despite that girl in college..." coy smile. "I'd hoped she might be one who could pull you into a life I could keep you safe in but one can't push these things...And now...When you do meet someone...It'll be too late."
"What? Oh, you mean you have to restore the original life…?"
"No, that's gone, thanks to me...I can only reset, not alter what's done. And I have tried...And tried, James. And failed, every time. Till this last final time when I revealed myself in this one last try, getting you involved in saving you, and in doing so made it impossible to do any more resets. Though I see now what my superiors always knew. I can't protect you from yourself. You might be safe, just possibly, in this existence, but you couldn't bear changing yourself so much that you'd be miserable all your life...And that's even worse than..."
"Dying, soon?...So I was going to die, even in my little quiet existence..." Bevis, wan smile. "Was I gonna get hit by a car trying to shoo a dog away from it? Fall down stairs helping someone?"
"In one week, while you're between jobs...An old friend of yours from college will offer you an opportunity to go South with the Freedom Riders. You'll go, of course, and you'll meet a young black woman on the bus, a young widow named Aurora...Whose marriage wasn't very happy."
"You..." he smiles. "But?"
"My reward, James...I get to meet you as a mortal woman...And die with you." she smiles. "Our bus will be firebombed by an angry mob who, when they see you saving me from the flames, and clearly rather fond of me, will be even angrier. It's a horrible death for the last of the Bevises. And when we're found, they won't even know your name, your friend dies on the bus and your name never gets properly logged."
"That doesn't matter. But, you can't go, Aurora. I won't let you. Heck, I won't go." insistent tone.
"James, you'd go even if I could keep you from forgetting all of this. You're a Bevis and a Bevis does his duty. You always have, through countless lifetimes. Not that you're your Uncle Louis, there are other Bevis souls...But you're the one reborn most often, the soul who freed a young girl named 'Aurora', Dawn, in her people's language. Because this world needs you so often. But this is your last stop and rest has been granted you. Both of us, at last."
"I won't remember you? But I have to… I don't mind dying, if I have to...I mean, we all do...But can't I keep the memory of you?"
"Oh, you'll know me, James. You always do." she smiles. "And, when it's all over, you'll remember."
"Then what's wrong? So long as we can get together, after all this..." he smiles. "It sounds like a great reward to me. Thank you, my guardian angel, Mrs. Bevis...Or Hempstead-Bevis, if you prefer...Or keep your last name, I know it's important to..."
"James..." impatient tone.
"Sorry, dear."
…
Memorial in Mississippi...Listing several names and referring to a few unknown but heroic souls tragically killed in 1960 during a Freedom Ride…
Two people standing reading the monument for an instant, a young black woman in an old fashioned but cunning Parisian hat and a dress of early 60s fashion and a young white man, in a rather old fashioned but oddly in fashion by its very eccentricity, suit, naturally complete with bow tie, which his loving companion pauses to straighten before they vanish, off on a new plane to do more of the good the world continues to need so desperately.
Aurora "Dawn" Winifred Hempstead, last princess and survivor of the Nygana clan, freed slave, heroine runner of the Underground Railroad, guardian angel and James W. B. Bevis, unemployed, somewhat ineffectual, but well-loved citizen, lost and forgotten to the world in his tragic and unheralded death, with other brave souls, the last of a long line of quiet heroes and heroines, finding their reward and rest, at last...In the Twilight Zone...